If Morrison can be his own man, there is hope

25 August 2018 — 11:01pm

Australia's 30th prime minister, Scott Morrison, has a chance to end the policy paralysis that has afflicted the nation for the past 10 years. By acting boldly on the challenges of the nation, he can strike out in a fresh manner, but time is not on his side.

Mr Morrison as immigration minister was tough on border control. He wielded a lump of coal in Parliament and said it would be a source of energy for a long time yet. But calling this churchgoer a hard-line conservative tells only part of the story. At his first press conference as PM-elect Mr Morrison nominated the drought as his most pressing issue, and spoke of his support for the National Disability Scheme. A Morrison Australia is a place of self-reliance for those who are so able, and help for those who need it.

Scott Morrison has a chance to end the policy paralysis that has afflicted the nation.Credit:SMH

Is he the elusive "third way" PM to save a governing coalition seemingly hopelessly split between its moderate and conservative wings? After the rancour of the past week, there has to be a moment of positivity. Mr Morrison may prove to be the leader who is conservative enough for the right wing of the Liberal-National coalition, yet progressive enough for the moderates.

But Mr Morrison comes to the nation's highest office in an atmosphere as toxic as anything since the Whitlam dismissal in 1975. The Lucky Country is not feeling too optimistic even after 26 years of good economic statistics. Farmers are suffering. Energy policy collapsed last week. In the so-called resources superpower we live in, people feel that their power bills are going through the roof. Climate policy is in disarray. The banks are on the nose. The big cities groan under housing costs and traffic congestion; the regional centres plead for more people.

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The events of the past week have frustrated many Australians. Waking up on Monday to find Peter Dutton was firming as a challenger for the nation's top job rankled those who are sick of the revolving door of prime ministers we have endured for a decade. The dry logic of the Westminister system, under which the party decides its leader, disheartens the Australians who love the three-year ritual of trooping into the local school hall to pick "our prime minister" amid sizzling sausages and windblown corflutes.

Reassuringly this party-based system righted itself enough to give a narrow victory to the candidate who was not behind the push to unseat the prime minister. Unlike Mr Dutton, Mr Morrison was not front and centre of the nastiness of the past week. Hopefully he represents a break with the decade of Turnbull-Abbott rivalry. He has been blooded in two of the nation's toughest portfolios, immigration and treasury, the latter the training ground of substantial PMs such as Chifley, Keating and Howard.

Mr Morrison says his government is on our side. We'll need him to act boldly. The Turnbull prime ministership proved again how strong convictions are essential to the art of leadership. Mr Turnbull was too willing to compromise with the conservative rivals in his party, seemingly abandoning some of the core beliefs for which voters respected him. In difficult circumstances he ushered in same-sex marriage and brought down unemployment (which is still too high at 5.3 per cent). But those internal rivals were never to sated.

When Mr Turnbull was unable to break through on corporate tax cuts or energy policy, his leadership was doomed. Mr Morrison need not suffer that fate. He should be beholden to no faction of his party, representing an opportunity to break from 10 years of hopeless internal rivalry and personality politics. The hardliners' cheer squad in the partisan media can like it or lump it. With an election due no later than mid 2019, Mr Morrison must set his bold course, then allow the voters their verdict on "their" prime minister.